Status Effect
by Zeff N Company
Summary: FtSKM: Cloud looked genuinely concerned as he kept pumping, trying to push air through those still lungs. Nothing seemed to be working. Even though Squall was still warm to the touch, he just wasn’t breathing at all. Implied 7x8


_Originally written for the Strifehart Kink Meme.  
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_Prompt: Mouth-to-mouth._

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Stupid Time-compressing witches, _he cursed. _Stupid Time magic… _

His left eye was drying out and starting to itch, and he couldn't even blink. It reminded him of his current, pathetic state from the aftermath of battling Ultimecia.

_Stupid, stupid Stop effect…_

"Squall…!"

If he could breathe a sigh of relief, he would. Thank goodness he had allies in the area, otherwise he would be a sitting – or lying completely paralyzed – duck at the moment. With the enemy, he knew only death would follow, and he was not ready to die anytime soon. With his allies, there was at least a chance one of them could get him out of this predicament.

"He's not moving!" Bartz suddenly screamed in panic. "_Squall's not breathing!_"

Of all the times he couldn't beat up the older but more immature man… of all the times…

"_He's dying! Somebody do something!_"

_Hyne's humping HIPS, you idiots! I'm NOT dying!_ He wanted to shout. His frozen lips and throat did not let him. _Don't ANY of you have some sort of status cure for this?_

"Get out of my way."

He felt someone roll him onto his back, and before he could fully prepare himself, a pair of strong hands placed themselves over his chest just above his ribs. Then they _pushed_.

That was when Squall realized why CPR was best conducted on unconscious victims or falsely recreated on volunteers. It… _$%^_… _HURT_.

Without the ability to show any pain on his paralyzed features, he found himself without a means to verbally convey the sharp agony of someone shoving over and over again against his chest with every ounce of strength in his body. He wondered why his rib cage had not shattered by now. Hyne, if his rib cage _did_ shatter it would probably be an act of mercy.

Above the unmoving figure – completely oblivious to the true circumstances at hand – Cloud looked genuinely concerned as he kept pumping, trying to push air through those still lungs. Nothing seemed to be working. Even though Squall was still warm to the touch, he just wasn't breathing at all. With a determined growl, he moved on to the next step.

Squall's angry train of thought died as his brain shut down altogether. Without the ability to move, he could not fully appreciate the fact that someone – that _Cloud_ – was quite suddenly bent over him with their lips pressed together. He felt air blowing into him, vaguely remembering that this – as incriminating as it was – was entirely necessary to bring him back to "life". Then he felt a bit of tongue accidentally poking his in the process, and knew for certain _that_ wasn't necessary. In fact, that was not helping this troubling situation at all.

Positioned near Squall's leg, Zidane quite suddenly yelped and jumped back. The prehensile tail behind him shot straight as an arrow, bristling to look twice as big. "Oh, that's not good!"

"What? _What?_" following a shaking finger's direction, three more warriors of Cosmos looked down between Squall's legs. In normal circumstances they would be blushing for the young man's honor. Now, at least two of them were white as sheets.

"We're too late!" Bartz bawled in outright anguish. "Squall's got a death erection!"

"Or perhaps it is just an erection," the Warrior of Light calmly pointed out. He had been the only one not to panic openly since discovering Squall's new state, and now he looked all the more suspicious. "Perhaps we need to look further into this."

On the bright side, if any part of him could move, it meant the status effect was starting to wear off. But Squall did not want to think about the bright side. All he could think about was how humiliating all this was turning out for him.

_Please let the ceiling cave in. Please let the ground open up and swallow me. Please let Ultimecia rise from the grave and get on with Time Compression. Anything at all, I don't care, just please kill me now and get me out of this-!_

"He's not dead," Cloud stated, his hand still firmly pressed over Squall's chest. "He will not die. I won't let him."

And the pain started all over again. As Squall counted the seconds off to the status effect finally purging from his system, he wondered if he would ever hear the end of this one.

That is, if he decided to live long enough.

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_(According to LJ Support, there seems to be some trouble there with lj-cut tags; I'm hoping they fix it soon. If not, I may just submit stuff here and post links in the meme... whichever works.)_


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